Positive Housing Statistics

The National Association of Realtors just printed an article with updated statistics. It looks like the housing market made some positive headway in the month of January. Here are a few of the interesting stats from that article:

1. Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 2.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.36 million in January from a downwardly revised 5.22 million in December, and are 5.3 percent above the 5.09 million level in January 2010. This is the first time in seven months that sales activity was higher than a year earlier.

It is a good sign when the number of existing home sales rises! Unfortunately, I do not have the stats on the New Orleans Real Estate Market at this time.

2. Total housing inventory at the end of January fell 5.1 percent to 3.38 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 7.6-month supply at the current sales pace, down from an 8.2-month supply in December. The inventory supply is at the lowest level since December 2009 when there was a 7.3-month supply.

Of course, with few houses it would seem that there would be upward pressure on prices. There are a number of other factors working on price as well so don’t expect huge appreciation!

3. In the South, existing-home sales increased 3.6 percent to an annual pace of 2.02 million in January and are 8.0 percent higher than January 2010. The median price in the South was $136,600, down 2.1 percent from a year ago.